The bacon buddy is a versatile sandwich for any hungry
occasion. Bacon, its defining ingredient, is generally recognized as
a breakfast food, however the bacon buddy takes this popular pork
product beyond the A.M. period to create a hearty snack for any
time. This sandwich can be characterized as "cheap and cheerful" due
to its low cost, quick and easy preparation, and comforting combination
of gastronimic attributes.
This sandwich is traditional
English fare and as such it is well suited to manual labour,
limited ingredient choices, limited budgets, and cold, damp
climates. It goes as well alongside tea as it does beer.
Also, a note to the purists: Yes. I know that "bacon butty" is the traditional spelling. Now, imagine yourself as very high and very hungry. *cue dream sequence, soft focus, faint harp music* A delightful hot greasy bacon sandwich is floating through the air towards you on a silver platter (really a paper plate). Your mouth is watering as a scent of such magnificence as to render you speechless wafts across the kitchen. I ask you, is such a meal a mere butty, or is it your Buddy? I feel the answer is clear.
In its most simple form, the recipe for a bacon buddy is as follows:
Ingredients:
- Four strips of bacon (this is a variable quantity, depending on hunger and availability)
- Two slices of bread, or one kaiser roll, halved
Preface to Assembly:
The Bacon node lists several methods for cooking the meat. For the
correct preparation of a bacon buddy, a generous level of grease must
remain after the bacon has been fried. It is, therefore, up to the
user to determine whether their particular bacon is streaky enough to
leave behind such grease or whether additional oil will need to be
added.
In keeping with the low-budget roots of this dish, I
usually procure cheaper bacon whose greasy content is higher than
gourmet offerings that tend to have more meat and less fat. With this
type of bacon I have found it unnecessary to use additional oil, and
I use the cold-pan method of cooking the bacon. This method has the
advantage of preserving the maximum amount of grease by helping prevent
loss due to splatter and burning.
Assembly:
Place the strips of bacon in a cold medium or large nonstick frying pan
Turn
on the stove at medium heat and allow the bacon to cook slowly. This
will allow you greater control over the texture of the bacon as well
as developing maximum grease concentration.
Before the bacon
reaches your desired state of doneness, but not before a generous
amount of grease has developed, carefully move the bacon to one side of
the pan.
Tilt the pan, allowing as much grease as possible to accumulate on the side opposite the bacon, which should be near done.
In
the greasy, non-bacon side of the pan, place the slices of bread or
halved roll. In the case of a roll, the halves should be placed with
the inside down.
As the bacon reaches perfection, the bread is
lightly fried and should soak up the grease. Twenty to thirty seconds
is adequate.
Before the bacon burns or the bread becomes overly cooked, remove the bread from the pan.
Place the cooked bacon upon one piece of bread and cover it with the other piece of bread, creating a sandwich form.
Now eat it, but mind the hot drips of grease.
Extending the Basic Formula:
The true beauty of the bacon buddy is its simplicity. In this
simplicity, however, there are also many possibilities for expansion.
Vegetables such as onion, garlic, tomato, mushrooms, etc.
make delicious additions when lightly fried in the bacon grease before
the bread is introduced. Such additional ingredients can be pushed to
the bacon side of the pan as the bread is cooked and will infuse both
bacon and bread with their flavorful juices.
It is also a
short step from the bacon buddy to the more complex and arguably more
delicious Bacon, Egg, and Cheese sandwich. While frying the egg in
the collected grease the bread can be placed on top as the egg cooks
and will, through adhesion, result in a convenient egg-bread unit to
place atop the opposing bacon-bread half of the sandwich. These two
parts will stick best with the cheese placed between them, and the
result will be an extremely sturdy sandwich suitable for mobile
consumption, should the user see fit.